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Around 1,250 people will suffer a stroke and require urgent care at Staffordshire’s largest hospital – but the good news is that those patients have a better chance of survival than almost anywhere else in the country.

Nationally, 13.7 per cent of patients suffering a stroke will die within 30 days. Yet at the Royal Stoke University Hospital, where the largest stroke centre in the West Midlands is based, the 30-day mortality figure is 12.1 per cent.

The stroke centre at Royal Stoke is also the only one in the UK which provides a 24-hours-a-day, seven-days-a-week thrompectomy service, which it has done since 2015. A thrompectomy is a surgical procedure to remove a blood clot from the brain and repair the vein.

Stroke consultant Dr Indira Natarajan puts the success of the unit down to a vast amount of work on stroke prevention, rapid intervention and the thrompectomy service, which can help about 10 per cent of stroke patients.

Doctor Indira Natarajan works on the Royal Stoke University Hospital's stoke ward

Dr Natarajan said: “We have a good frontline team who will assess the patient and do a thrompectomy, that can reduce the severity of the stroke. It can reduce brain injury and disability.

“What is unique in our area, is the specialist stroke nurses, who are the backbone of the service. They are equivalent to a stroke doctor and can diagnose a stroke. They are available day and night, 24/7. They are based in hospital, and when paramedics call with a suspected stroke, they will meet and greet them in A&E and the patient’s treatment will be enhanced.

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“If you look at the pathway, a stroke should be identified by the ambulance, then the hospital should be prepared. They should be given appropriate treatment then taken to the stroke centre.

“We have done a lot of work on prevention. About 25 per cent of strokes are caused by atrial fibrillation (AF). This is an irregular rhythm of the heart, which someone can have, but not know that they have.

Dr Natarajan puts the success of the unit down to a vast amount of work on stroke prevention

“We have got software, and we can diagnose this condition. It is focused on prevention. Once diagnosed, these people need an anticoagulant, like warfarin.

“For us the biggest area of prevention is AF. If you are over 65 and your pulse feels irregular, get it checked out.”

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Strokes are caused by either a blockage, cutting off blood supply to the brain, or by bleeding in the brain from a burst blood vessel. Across the UK as a whole, there are more than 100,000 strokes each year, or around one every five minutes.

Stroke is the fourth single leading cause of death in the UK and the most common cause of disability – almost two thirds of stroke survivors leave hospital with a disability.

We're standing up for the NHS in Stoke-on-Trent.

Dr Natarajan says the number of stroke patients treated at the Royal Stoke has risen dramatically and as a result of the hospital now taking patients who previously would have come under the care of Stafford, Leighton and Macclesfield hospitals.

He said: “We were seeing around 980 strokes. Now we get about 1,250 strokes a year. We are a neuro science department, we also get complex cases from Wolverhampton. We have expanded our stroke treatment work.

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“One of the biggest risk factors is hypertension (high blood pressure). A lot of people don’t know they have hypertension.

“We now see patients aged between 50 and 65, when in the past it was just over 65s. That is down to lifestyle, changing diets, work-related stress and the fast food culture. People have to realise about healthy eating, cutting out smoking and drinking less alcohol. We all have a duty to help the health service.

Dr Natarajan says specialist stroke nurses are the backbone of the service

“In the past we were more health conscious. We will check blood pressure and look at lifestyle. Life is now so fast paced. We have seen patients aged between 20 and 40 having strokes and that is mainly down to lifestyle. Obesity is a very big concern.

“The biggest problem is blood control, and diabetes control. But the reduction in smoking has helped to reduce the number of strokes over the past few years in our area. In the last two to three years, we see less AF strokes as well, as a result of the prevention work we have done.”

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Dr Natarajan added: “I know the cost of looking after a bad stroke. If you have a stroke and are badly disabled, it costs £24,000 a year to look after them in the community. It is a huge cost to the NHS and the family, and that is not including loss of earnings.”

Madeline Edge, aged 87, of Congleton, whose husband Peter, aged 85, has been treated at the Royal Stoke, following a stroke, said: “They are marvellous, lovely, lovely people. The staff are all very kind and they do a wonderful job.”